Thursday Talk: Hamed Rashtian, “Same Old Story” @ Surrey Art Gallery – May 4, 7 :30 pm

Visual artist and Ph.D. student Hamed Rashtian will talk about his research on the embodied realities of different colonial histories.

Rashtian will provide an overview of his art practice and then elaborate on his recent project Same Old Story. This multimedia installation reflects on the possibilities and limits of image, text, and sound to find creative forms of narrative construction. Same Old Story is a conversation around six instances of colonial confrontation. This includes the Wet’swet’en people’s resistance to the Coastal GasLink pipeline in Canada; the proclamation of the Congo’s independence; the Battle of Algiers in the Algerian War of Independence; Oslo Accords; oil concessions between Britain and Iran; and China’s Opium Wars. These diverse instances of colonialism inform each other in their similarities and differences, especially in their power dynamics.“Same old story” will be presented at ISEA 2023 in Paris on May 16.

Hamed Rashtian is a visual artist who focuses on creating a dialogue between different colonial histories through art installations. He completed his MFA at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver and holds a Swiss Federal Diploma in Higher Education from the F+F School of Art and Design in Zurich. Active as a visual artist since 2006, Rashtian has had solo exhibitions in Iran, Switzerland, and United Arab Emirates as well as participated in many international group exhibitions. He is a PhD student in the School of Interactive Arts & Technology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.

Visit Surrey Art Gallery for more information.

Image: Hamed Rashtian, Same Old Story (2020-present), laser engraving on canvas, six-channel sound installation, drawing component ( installation view)